Hanna Norris Dover loves unusual projects. When a friend asked the hospitality designer/developer if she’d be interested in an authentic CSX train caboose, her wheels started to turn.
“My mind went wild with excitement over the potential,” says Dover, owner of The Creative Compass, a real-estate investment and development company in Tennessee. “I didn’t know what I was going to do with the caboose or where it was going to go. But I decided to take a leap of faith and build my wings on the way down.”
Parked in the backyard of a rural homestead in South Carolina, the caboose still had its original trucks (wheels) set on a partial track. Examining the trucks dated the train car at circa 1916. After being retired from the railroad, it served as a family pool house for decades. The interior was lined with 1970s shag carpet and the space was unlivable. But Dover was sure she could recycle the caboose into an eclectic vacation lodging, and the project’s final destination seemed self-evident.
Picking Up Steam
“What a better choice of lodging than a train in the Smoky Mountains?” Dover asks. “I found the perfect spot—a commercial site within a mile of the Dollywood theme park.”
Having developed multiple vacation cabins in the Smoky Mountains in Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, Tenn., Dover knew the area well. One of Dollywood’s iconic rides is the Dollywood Express, consisting of two authentic locomotives, and the caboose now sits within earshot of the train whistles. The Rocky Top Mountain Coaster—a rollercoaster ride through the mountain—also is conveniently nearby. Zoning approval for the project was an arduous task; however, transporting the train car across state lines from South Carolina to the chosen site proved an even more immense challenge.
“We had to disassemble it and literally dig and pull it out of the backyard,” Dover recalls. “We took the car off the frame and trucks, and the trucks off the track, then got the three pieces onto two rigs for transport.”
The process required two cranes with spreader bars to prevent the caboose from tipping in the air as it was loaded on one flat-bed rig and one drop-deck, low-boy semi-truck. Permitting was tricky to navigate because the caboose’s cupola exceeded height restrictions, which meant the rigs could not travel at night. With the loss of daylight during the trip, the drivers had to pull over and sleep in their trucks. Precise planning was also critical; Dover had to have two additional cranes with spreader bars ready onsite in Tennessee to remove the caboose from the rigs. Every minute the rented equipment sat idle cost money.
From start to finish, the project took three years. The City of Pigeon Forge, the planning commission and inspectors were all heavily involved in reviewing the project. Not only did the train car need approval as a single-family dwelling in a special tourism zone within city limits, but Dover also needed to add square footage to the project to meet minimum requirements for an overnight rental.
The effort required a full team of professionals. Dover worked with architect, N. Jackson Thacker of Traditional Concepts Inc. in Greenville, S.C., an engineer and a surveyor for the site’s setbacks, utility easements and a stormwater plan. Drawings, blueprints and the site plan needed to be created and submitted before Dover could even have the opportunity to move forward. The day she received approval from the city, she walked across the street and closed the property deal.
CLEAR SIGNALS
For stability, the caboose’s trucks and the car are all welded as one piece to the tracks cemented into the foundation. To create additional square footage for living, Dover and Thacker connected the historic caboose to a replica of a European-inspired train depot. The outcome is two-fold: The project provides full living quarters in an 813-square-foot, two-bedroom, one-bathroom rental, and it appears to passersby as though the train car has pulled up to a Swiss Alpine station.
To enhance the visual effect, Dover placed LED flicker bulbs on a timer inside the cupola, which makes them look like rotating lights on a real train.
The landscape includes local Tennessee rock boulders and native plants found in the natural surroundings, and the site sits prominently along the main road leading to Dollywood.
PHOTOS: Nick Fitzgerald, Fitztography, unless otherwise noted
